Getting font-tastic with faith!
Jun 28th by JonIt is a well established fact that the average Christian uses 32% more exclamation points in their emails than Atheists. It’s not that we’re more excitable than other people, just that once we start capitalizing He and You and other references to God we start getting a little crazy with our punctuation too!!!
That’s not what I want to talk about today though. What I want to address are the 7 official rules of church fonts. Having recently experienced quite a few in my travels to promote the book Stuff Christians Like
The 7 Rules of Church Fonts
1. If you are doing a sermon or series on the Old Testament, you have to use Papyrus, that ancient feeling font. This is the Gandalf of all fonts.
2. If you are doing anything related to the youth group, you must use “Comic Sans.” Come on, it says, “Comic” right there in the title. This is the Spuds MacKenzie of fonts.
3. An image of an eagle, dove, or bough of olive branches can be used to punctuate a sentence.
4. If you have a “t” in a word and you don’t turn it into a cross, I hope you enjoy your visit to hades. It’s going to be a hot one my friend. And not a dry heat.
5. Always remember, “Where ten or more different fonts are gathered in one bulletin, there God will be as well.” Don’t be afraid to use every font you own all at once.
6. Don’t worry about getting pulled over for a BUI. Bold, Underlined and Italicized! You want something to “pop,” you better BUI like there is no tomorrow.
7. When in doubt, trust the Holiest, most important online font a human has access to, the flaming letters of importance. (I feel like this should be the official font of satan, but I swear lots of Christian sites apparently like it hot, hot, hot!
Those are my rules when it comes to church fonts.
Which ones did I miss? What are your faithtastic favorite fonts? Am I the only one who notices fonts?
Comments
I love the idea of no O's in the Easter bulletin! Hilarious! And that video about the Font Conference was great!
I have a PhD in English and never heard of kerning. Will this blog ever stop teaching me?!
I need to google "Kerning"
I don't know much about godly fonts, but I learned a new word today: kerning.
or KERNING!!!!!!!1
(If I could bold it, I would.)
Hilarious! Another component of this is the background/wallpaper selection PLUS the font while lyrics for worship music are onscreen – that's a lot of thought into the whole multimedia experience!
Times New Roman has been so overdone, it should be retired. And Arial is fast approaching. If you think that church people overdo the exclamation points, you should see couponers and all those blogs: SALE!!!!, Don't MISS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!! 98% OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!
Times New Roman is the bain of my exsistence – it's just so stuffy looking and difficult to read in a small point size. And why is it the default font on ALL our computers? Guess I should ask the IT guy that last question…
Why would God give the church Jesus but then leave us devoid of imagination? OK, so I'm kidding… Me too. I notice those things way too much. Do you think it is a plot of Satan?
Zapfino: the font of weddings everywhere.
Curlz: to use for any kids events and for the ladies if they're doing something crazy like a purse party.
Cracked: for anything teen-oriented. because it looks so gritty and hardcore.
Thats great! as a graphic designer I have a hard time not noticing how the church ruins text so i'm glad u pointed it out! i dont feel like i'm a horrible sinner ne more lol
A friend of mine has an "ideal font" rule you use when typing out your Bible study – to stop that panic you get when you're nervous about leading the study anyway and then you look down at your sheet of paper and can't see anything but a jumble of badly set out words on a page!
The ideal? "Trebuchet, size 12, two columns, well spaced, bold print. Mmmmm."
Love Trebuchet
You forgot Impact. Now that's makes the youth want to get out and win some souls.
I hate exclamation points.
Ugh, so do I!!!!!!!!!!1
you obviously saw this: http://www.cracked.com/funny-5647-fonts/
Bad fonts aren't half as bad as cheesy backgrounds on the projector screen. Whether it's an announcement, a sermon point or song lyrics there's nothing like a good ol' faithtastic puke green background or continuously flowing water to get everyone in a "God mood."
I use Tempus Sans when I want to give Papyrus a break and I find Jokerman or Ravie for the heading provides enough contrast and variety for comic sans to really speak to the people. I have to confess I don't understand the hate for comic sans. It's a clear, legible font that doesn't shout 'legal document' like Arial or Times New Roman. And I still have no idea what kerning is.
BUI. Laugh. Out. Loud.
You're definitely right about fonts. I and a lot of other people notice (and are probably greatly distracted from messages due to) fonts. It's pretty sad that we sometimes can't focus because of that, I will confess.
You may use any font you wish, as long as it's Times New Roman…the grandpappy of all fonts
I'm hoping you said it as a joke and it just went over my head, but the phrase is "without further ado" not "adieu".
I am so into fonts. I even change the font of the bulletin with each liturgical season…ok, maybe that's too much.
Jon, don't you know youth groups have given away Comic Sans as a hand-me-down to the childrens ministry! All the cool youth group kids are rocking Avant Garde or Futura these days, AND OFTEN WITH A STICKY CAPS LOCK KEY.
I hope all this amazingly gifted design people who hate their church bulletins are going to volunteer to do design work at their churches . . . cause churches can't always afford to hire people to do that sort of thing . . .
Meg, I am a professional designer and I have volunteered– but kept getting over-ruled so I’ve given up. People really like their comic sans! Thankfully God’s love transcend font usage.
Jon, as a graphic artist who has been church secretary (a.k.a. bulletin designer extraordinaire) for 5 years, and who prides herself on almost never using clipart, more than two fonts, fonts-that-should-be-banned (the foremost of which are Papyrus and Comic Sans, followed quickly by Monotype Corsiva), or borders/text boxes, I want to smack you over the head with a Baptist preacher's giant KJV Bible right now.
Just sayin'.
I'm also violently opposed to Comic Sans…but perhaps I shouldn't be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3k5oY9AHHM
Oh, and Jon, you need to add this video to your post: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1823766
I'm a big believer in fontifying church!! If they want me to attend a camp or VBS I think they should persuade me with something more exciting than Arial Black!!
I am amazed that A) you got a whole blog out debating font choices and B) so many people, including myself, know the fonts you're talking about and have favorites of their own!! I personally prefer Jayne Print but its not really on any programs I use anymore. Bradley Hand ITC is the closest I can find. *sigh*
Haha! I love #4!
I find it amusing that you did an article on Fonts right after Cracked.com which is a decidedly not-Christian site… though they did reference church bulletins in their article as the most offensive font users.
I'm very picky when it comes to fonts. I like something that is legible but that is also as closely themed to what I am talking about as I can; when possible.
Impact is good. Makes a real impact.
I've used fonts with exotic names from HydrogenWhisky to Jurassic. I think that the current font for my Japan blog's header is Japan.
Hit up coolarchive's font section for a good selection. I've been using fonts from there for many years.
I'm trying to think of things you missed, but I think you got every one of them. I am on a mission to retire Papyrus and Comic Sans. For reals. There are other fonts to express whimsy. Also, Hobo needs to go.
I am so blessed to be part of a church with EXCELLENT promotional material/brochures etc… amazing!!
no over use of the word "awesome", not bad fonts, great use of church news…
It makes me smile
I am guilty of all of the above…. I create the sermon series logos at my church.
I've also used worship eagles on video with the song "Everlasting God" during the guitar solo.
The font world is responding to our plight. You can actually get a font called Christian Crew…. too funny… it includes doves, doves with olive branches, crosses, and Jesus' face.
I don't think it's a true Christian font though…. you can still type 666 when using it.
There is nothing more distracting from the message than a bad use of fonts. It's like your minister wearing a pink leisure suit. I strongly believe Jesus would use Helvetica for everything.
For youth I LOVE(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – yes parenthetical overuse of punctuation)
Birth of A Hero!
It's amazing what a little helvetica and futura can do for the eye if used properly. We are always taught as a rule of thumb, use the least amount of typefaces as possible. 2 at the most. Papyrus makes me cringe.
It's gotta be Gill Sans for me. Every time.
And of course this gets me into trouble with the (admittedly small number of) fundies who know anything about Eric Gill and what he liked to do in his spare time…
Bleeding Cowboys is making a run for it in the edgy, angst-filled set.
I'm all about fonts but I'm finding that minimalistic seems to convey quite a bit more than the gaudy. Bank Gothic is a good one…I actually like Calibri…but more often than not, I use Georgia or Bookman Old Style.
Can we get a ruling on Tempus Sans? I actually like it, but I fear it's going the way of Papyrus.
What a great post. It is so fun to read comments from other people who notice and care about fonts.
I certainly would cast my vote in an effort to ban Comic Sans. Yuck.
All the relevant christians are using century gothic now
Maybe all church secretaries should be forced to watch this:
http://www.helveticafilm.com/
In my Childern's Ministry class, we were taught to use a font similar to Comic Sans because it makes the "a" how the kids learn to write it. Thankfully there are MANY other fonts out there that don't make their a's like we see them in this comment!
Many of the products I've worked on have used Avant Garde for that very reason, especially those materials for kids in first or second grade to read.
I agree — the wide variety of fonts does need to be explored and used.
I was "so over" Papyrus by the end of production of Mount Extreme when I worked on the VBS project team (wow, was that 12 years ago??!!??). To this day, I can spot it more easily than almost any other font.
Now I'm partial to the ones my products use the most: Myriad Pro and Minion Pro. Reliable, readable fonts with lots of style choices. w00t!
is this blog just a ripoff of Stuff White People Like? I've never seen this blog before but I don't want to waste my time if it sucks. I came here searching for these rules I heard about on Spirit FM in Tampa.
Mistrel is also an infamous font.
Also, watch out for Marydale—a handwritten font that communicates a casualness.
This is SO hilarious! I'm crying I'm laughing so hard!
[...] 14. The 7 Rules of Church Fonts [...]
[...] 1. Website. Their site, http://www.fellowshipholden.com, is easy to navigate AND easy on the eyes. No Comic Sans or Papyrus in sight. It was easy to find the SCL event on the church calendar, find a way to contact the [...]
Wow… this was a horrible post… I disagree with about 90% of what you had to say. I'm well aware that you did this for fun, but on the off chance that someone else might take you seriously, I have to disagree. As a web/graphics developer for a church, simple and clean is always the best way. Don't detract from your message with cheap inconsistent distracting fonts. IMHO